Aloo Parwal

No more boring Aloo Parwal, this potato & pointed gourd gravy has some serious flavors, perfect to warm up your dinner table any day. It is cooked without onion & garlic & super handy pantry staples. Make this Instant Pot Aloo Parwal & enjoy with Chapathis or rice. Watch the video below & find the stove top method on the recipe card.

Recipe Video

Aloo Parwal ki Sabji

Aloo Parwal or Aloo Potol Dalna what ever you may call it is an extremely delicious veggie curry that you can make with Pointed gourd, chunky potatoes, tomatoes & few common spices.

It's hearty, healthy, tastes amazing with Pooris, Chapathis & Dal rice.

I've been cooking a lot of Aloo Parwal these days for dinner & also teaching my 6 years old how to relish traditional recipes. He hates the tough Parwal seeds & fishes them out 😀

Aloo Parwal! Arggghhhh! Where's the fish or mutton?

This is what I used to get from Manojeet (the husband) whenever I cooked Aloo Parwal 😛

Since, day 1 I decided to perfect the sauce & made a vow that I am going to transform the recipe & make it D-E-L-I-C-I-O-U-S so that the hardest of hardcore carnivores will give in.

It's hard to make a hardcore carnivore eat vegetables until & unless you make it supremely delicious!

And this is exactly what I did with today's recipe I made it perfect & I made it taste good.

There are tons of tips & tricks which I learned while perfecting the recipe of Aloo Parwal and I am going to share each one of them with you.

I also modified the recipe & made it in an Instant Pot, don't worry if you don't own one I've shared the stove top method too 🙂

Aloo Parwal also known as Aloo Potol Dalna in Bengali was a difficult recipe to tame. There are not tons of ingredients to boost the taste factor.

It's simple & hence tricky to make it delicious.

I mean seriously delicious where you really want to lick the bowl 😉

So, join me for this fantastic, quick & delicious Instant Pot Aloo Parwal - that's not B-O-R-I-N-G!

What exactly is Aloo Parwal ki Sabji anyway?

Aloo Parwal is an Indian Vegetarian dish that is cooked with Pointed gourd know as Parwal (in Hindi) or Potol (in Bengali), chunky potatoes & common spices.

It's a simple recipe that has no frills & you can enjoy it every single day.

Aloo = Potato

Parwal = Pointed Gourd or Potol.

There are however, tons of variations of Aloo Parwal cooked in different parts of India.

Today's recipe is the Bengali version that you can cook without onion & garlic. Very apt. for those fasting days or if you are intolerant to onion or garlic.

This Instant Pot Aloo Parwal is not dry, it has a decent amount of gravy in it.

It's simple, it's easy & tastes equally good with roti, Poori or rice.

Aloo Parwal or Aloo Potol Dalna Ingredients

You will need very few ingredients for this recipe.

Here's the list:

1. Parwal or Potol or Pointed Gourd: Washed, cleaned & peeled with alternate patches of skin left (check out the video). Do not take the seeds out, they taste good.
2. Potatoes: Peeled & diced into 1" cubes.
3. Spices in paste form: Whole cumin, whole coriander ground into a paste along with ginger & tomatoes.
4. Powder Spices: Turmeric & red chili (optional if you prefer less spicy food).
5. Ginger: We will make into a paste with cumin, coriander & tomato.
6. Tomato: Nice & juicy. We will make it into a puree along with ginger, cumin & coriander.
7. Oil: Mustard oil is recommended but you may use canola or vegetable oil too. I ran out of mustard oil & hence, I cooked today's recipe with canola oil. You can find the same in the video. The pungent mustard oil make things better & the Aloo Parwal gravy turns yummy. Definitely use it if you have it.
8. For tempering: Panchforon (mix of 5 whole spices) or cumin seeds. Use any one of them to temper the oil. I used panchforon.
9. Green Chilis: This one is optional. If you love spicy food use them. You can grind them to a paste along with the other ingredients or just chop them & use while making the gravy.

Pro Tip: If you don't want to use the paste masalas (cumin & coriander) use homemade coriander powder & cumin powder. In that case blend the ginger, tomato & green chilies to make a puree. Do not use store bought masalas because this is a simple gravy & the quality & fragrance of masalas will hugely impact the taste. Check out the homemade Coriander Powder Recipe.

How to cut the Parwal or Potol?

1. Wash the pointed gourd or Parwal.
2. Cut off both tips.
3. Peel the parwal as shown in the picture above. Leaving strips of peel on the Potol.
4. Cut them into half diagonally or at a straight angle.

7 Tips to make the best Aloo Parwal ki Sabji

You can certainly make a delicious Aloo Parwal gravy with these handy tips.

Today's aloo potol dalna recipe is the best example of a minimalistic recipe that does not require a laundry list of ingredients.

1. Buy the right Parwal: Choose green smooth Pointed gourd that are tight to the touch. Stay away from yellow Parwal, they are ripe & won't taste good in this recipe. Soft Parwal is also a sign of over ripe or damage.
2. How you peel the Pointed gourd actually matters here: Do not take off the whole skin from the pointed gourd. You need to peel vertically from tip to tip than leave about ½ cm peel on & than peel again. Repeat this process & refer to the video. Peeling the full skin from the Parwal will make it super soft, limp & over cooked in the gravy.
3. Fry the Parwal & Potatoes first: For best flavors fry the Parwal & the cubed potatoes until golden in two separate batches & set aside. This boosts the flavors of the dish & makes it very tasty. I would recommend you to miss this step at all.
4. How you add the spices or masalas actually makes a huge impact: I have cooked the same recipe using both - spice powders as well as spice paste made from freshly ground whole spices. And guess what the later tastes the best. Grind the whole cumin & coriander seeds with few tbsp. water & make them into a paste to cook this aloo potol dalna recipe.
5. Less is more here: Use less spices but freshly made spice paste from whole spices. This is highly recommended but you may use powder spices, use only the homemade ones. DO NOT use the store bought masalas.
6. Ripe tomatoes a must: This simple curry has very few ingredients so you must always use the very best quality ingredients to make it delicious. Un ripe tomatoes might make this aloo parwal sour.
7. Mind the cooking time: This is so important for this recipe because over cooked Pointed gourd tastes terrible & so does mushed up potatoes. Mind the cooking time, check the gravy multiple time if you cook it in an open pot or Kadai. And follow the exact steps mentioned here if you cook it in an Instant Pot.

Pro Tip: You may leave the whole skin on the Pointed gourd to make today's recipe. It will make the Parwal slightly chewy. We do not love that taste & thus, peeled the Parwal but not completely. Check out the Video.

How long can you store Aloo Parwal in the fridge?

You can store Aloo Parwal for 3 days in the fridge in air tight containers.

I do not prefer to cross the 3 days mark because it tastes meh after 3 days as it is a super simple vegetarian recipe.

It does not have tons of layers of flavors to camouflage the simple taste.

But, you can store it beyond 3 days if you want to, it does not become stale beyond that point. It's just a personal preference.

Experiment & find out what you love 🙂

Serving Ideas

We enjoy eating Aloo Parwal gravy or aloo Potol Dalna with Poori, Chapathi & Dal rice.

It tastes amazing with the above combos. Certainly try them out.

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How to make Aloo Parwal in Instant Pot?

Steps in words below pictures

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